St. Helens, Des Moines.
[CONTENTS.]
| [CHAPTER I.] | |
| 1869. | |
| PAGE. | |
| A Little White Card with President Grant’s Name on It--A Voyage to Europe--An English Inn--Hear Gladstone Speak--John Bright and Disraeli. | [15] |
| [CHAPTER II.] | |
| 1869. | |
| In Switzerland--The Alps--Embarrassment in Not Knowing the Language--Celebrated Exiles Meet in a Certain Café--Brentano--Wagner--Kinkel--Scherr--Keller and Others. | [20] |
| [CHAPTER III.] | |
| 1870. | |
| In the Orsini Café--Great News from France--What the Exiles Think--Letter from General Sherman--I Get Permission to Go and Look at the War--In the Snow of the Juras--Arrested--The Surrender of the 80,000--Zurich in the Hands of a Mob--Friendly Hint. | [27] |
| [CHAPTER IV.] | |
| 1871. | |
| The Paris Horrors--Some Excursions with Literary People--Beer Gardens--A Characteristic Funeral--Funeral of a Poet’s Child--Caroline Bauer, the Actress--A Polish Patriot--Celebrating the Fourth of July at Castle Rapperschwyl--The St. Bernard--The Mules and Dogs--On a Swiss Farm--For Burning Chicago. | [34] |
| [CHAPTER V.] | |
| 1872. | |
| Louis Blanc, the Statesman--His Novel Courtship--His Appearance--Invites Us to Paris--Just Miss Victor Hugo--His Speech at Madame Blanc’s Grave--Letter from Louis Blanc--Alabama Arbitrators--See Gambetta and Jules Favre. | [42] |
| [CHAPTER VI.] | |
| 1872. | |
| William Tell--The Rigi in the Good Old Times--Pilatus--Rose Bushes for Fuel. | [48] |
| [CHAPTER VII.] | |
| 1872. | |
| General Sherman Visits Us at Zurich--Letters from Him--Swiss Officers Entertain Him--His Lake Excursion--He Explains His Greatest Campaign to Them--He is Entertained at the Swiss Capital--Letter from General Dufour. | [52] |
| [CHAPTER VIII.] | |
| 1872. | |
| Letter from General Sherman--Visit America--Sands of Bremen--Storms at Sea--Elihu Washburne--Banquet to Him on Ship--I am a Guest at the Sherman Home--Mrs. Sherman--Arrange to Take Miss Sherman to Europe--Meet Mr. Blaine--My Song Sung in the Sherman Home--Conversations with Sherman--Meet President Grant--How I Happened to Be in the Rebel Army Once--Letters from General Sherman. | [61] |
| [CHAPTER IX.] | |
| 1873. | |
| Letter from General Sherman--Loss of the “Atlantic”--The Boyhood Home of Napoleon III and of His Mother, Queen Hortense--A Companion Tells of the Prince’s Pranks and Studies--Josephine’s Harp--Arenaberg Full of Napoleon Relics--We Have a Long Interview with the Ex-Empress Eugenie--Letter from Sherman--Speaks of Thiers. | [77] |
| [CHAPTER X.] | |
| 1873. | |
| The Source of the Rhine--Strange Villages There--A Republic Four Hundred Years Old--The “Gray League”--“The League of the House of God”--Louis Philippe’s Hiding Place--A Tour in the Valley of the Inn--Letter from General Sherman--Regrets His Career Seems Over. | [86] |
| [CHAPTER XI.] | |
| 1874. | |
| Sherman on Cuba--Visit Italy--Garibaldi’s Wonderful Reception at Rome--The Artist Freeman--First American Painter to Live in Rome--Rome in 1840--See Victor Emmanuel--Joaquin Miller--His Conversation and Appearance--New Swiss Constitution--More Letters from General Sherman--Too Many Commanders in Washington for Him--Will Go to St. Louis--His Views of War Histories. | [95] |
| [CHAPTER XII.] | |
| 1875. | |
| Letters from Mrs. Sherman and the General--He Tells Me He is Writing His Life--The Negro Question--A Chateau by Lake Zurich--I Write a Book on Switzerland--Also Write a Play--A City of Dead Kings--Go to London--Meet Colonel Forney--Dinner at George W. Smalley’s--Kate Field--Visit Boucicault--Conversations with the Newer Shakespeare--The Beautiful Minnie Walton--Breakfast at Her Home--Professor Fick--His Home Built in the Old Roman Wall--Lectures--Holidays at the Consulate--Mrs. Congressman Kelley--A Student Commerz--Beer Drinking--Dukes of the Republic--Duels--Letter from General Sherman--Prussian Army Maneuvers. | [104] |
| [CHAPTER XIII.] | |
| 1876. | |
| Storm in the Alps--Mr. Benjamin--Kate Sherwood Bonner--Icebergs--A Scotch Poet--Horatio King’s Literary Evenings--Colonel Forney--Mr. Robert--A New York Millionaire’s Home--A Christmas Night Hurricane at Sea--The Tilden-Hayes Fight--Civil War Feared in Washington--Dennison, the Inventor--A Strange Murder--The Wreck of the Schiller and Loss of Miss Dimmick. | [119] |
| [CHAPTER XIV.] | |
| 1877. | |
| General Grant Visits Lake Luzern--Conversations with Him--How I Brought the Good News of Sherman’s Successes in the Carolinas to General Grant at Richmond--Grant’s Simplicity in His Travels--A Strange Experience on the Rigi--London Papers Amazed at the Population of the United States--First Telephone. | [128] |
| [CHAPTER XV.] | |
| 1877. | |
| General Grant and the Swiss President--Banquet to Grant at Bern--Good Roads--Am Chargé d’Affaires for Switzerland--Writing for the Magazines. | [134] |
| [CHAPTER XVI.] | |
| 1877. | |
| Franz Liszt at Zurich--Swiss Great Lovers of Music--Wagner Once Lived Here--His Singular Ways--Dr. Willi--Madame Lucca’s Villa--Liszt’s Kissing Bees--Jefferson Davis’ Daughter--A Laughable Mistake. | [140] |
| [CHAPTER XVII.] | |
| 1878. | |
| Some Recollections of Mine about General Grant in the War--Grant at Champion Hills--Sherman’s Letter on Confiscation by Taxation in America--Grant at Ragatz--I Give a Banquet in His Honor at Zurich. | [145] |
| [CHAPTER XVIII.] | |
| 1878. | |
| The St. Gothard Tunnel--I Describe It for Harper’s Magazine--Its Cost--A Great Scare in the Tunnel. | [153] |
| [CHAPTER XIX.] | |
| 1879. | |
| American Artists at Munich--I Meet Mark Twain--Take Him to an Artists’ Club--Conversations with Him--Beer Drinking--He Reads the Original of “What I Know about the German Language”--We Entertain the Americans at Zurich--A Letter from General Sherman--Confederates More Popular than Union Men--Sherman Ready to Surrender | [157] |
| [CHAPTER XX.] | |
| 1879. | |
| A Trip Through the Black Forest--Stein on the Rhine--A Famous Castle--“All Blown Up”--Good Roads--Fox Hunting. | [165] |
| [CHAPTER XXI.] | |
| 1879. | |
| Bret Harte--Letters from Him--Visits Us--Stay at Bocken--Conversations--Mrs. Senator Sherman--Evenings at Bocken--We All Go to the Rigi--How We Got the “Prince’s” Rooms--Harte Goes with Us to Obstalden in the Alps--Very Simple Life--A Strange Funeral--Harte Finds His Stories in a Village Inn--More Letters--We Visit the Moselle River--Finer than the Rhine--A Wonderful Castle of the Middle Ages--All Furnished and Fresh as When New--The French Did Not Find It When They Were Demolishing German Castles--An Exquisite Gothic Church Five Hundred Years Old--Wonderful Roman Ruins at Treves--More Letters from Bret Harte--A Happy Man. | [170] |
| [CHAPTER XXII.] | |
| 1880–1881. | |
| A Little Stay by the Mediterranean--Am Offered a Position in China--An Article on the Swiss Rhine--Also One on My Experiences in the Rebel Army--Two Letters from General Sherman--Grant and the Presidency--Says the Bare Narrative of My Escape from Prison Would Be an Epic--Banquet at the Legation--I Write for the New York Tribune an Exposé of How Certain European Communities Sent Paupers to the United States--Am Violently Attacked for It by Many American Journals and Reprimanded by State Department--Swiss Government Complains--Investigation Follows--I Am Justified--Letter from Sherman as to His Son Tom--Visit America--Secretary Blaine Compliments Me--The Press Changes Its Tone and New Laws Are Adopted as to Immigration in United States and Switzerland--Tribune Says Editorially, “Mr. Byers Deserves the Thanks of the American People”--A Little Visit to the Poet Longfellow, and the Alcotts; also to the Author of “America.” | [189] |
| [CHAPTER XXIII.] | |
| 1881. | |
| Elm and All Its People Destroyed by an Avalanche--A Foot Trip in Ireland--Fenians--Red Coats--Poverty--The Queen Hooted--Out of Jail and a Hero--Muckross Abbey by Moonlight--An Irish Funeral--A Duplicate Blarney Stone--Letters from General Sherman--The Duke of Wellington--The Assassination of President Garfield. | [205] |
| [CHAPTER XXIV.] | |
| 1882–1883. | |
| Visit Northern Italy--American Indians in Zurich--Death of the Poet Kinkel--Letters from Carl Schurz and the Poet’s Wife--Letter from Sherman as to the Bounteous Mississippi Valley--A Second Letter from Sherman--The Presidency--Conversations with Scherr, the Writer--The Poet Kinkel’s Son--His Powerful Memory--We Visit Berlin--Minister Sargent’s Trouble with Prince Bismarck over American Pork--Sargent Is Appointed to St. Petersburg--Indians Again--Baby Lions--Visit America Again--Funeral of the Author of “Home, Sweet Home”--Swiss National Exhibition--The Swiss War Minister Visits Me--We Had Been Comrades in Libby Prison--Trouble with Fraudulent Invoices--Origin of Expert System at Consulate--I Succeed in Stopping the Frauds--My Action is Reported at Washington as Saving a Million Dollars to the Government--Another Letter from General Sherman--His Coming Retirement from the Army. | [216] |
| [CHAPTER XXV.] | |
| 1884. | |
| Some Interesting Letters from General Sherman--Requests for Souvenirs--His “Flaming Sword”--One on the Presidency--I Am Appointed Consul General for Italy--An American Fourth of July Picnic on Lake Zurich--Lord Byron’s Home in Switzerland--Some Old Letters about His Life There--The Lake Dwellings of Switzerland--Keller, the Antiquarian--Power of Swiss Torrents. | [225] |
| [CHAPTER XXVI.] | |
| 1884. | |
| Start for Italy--The Cholera--Ten Days in Quarantine on Lake Maggiore--A Heroic King--We Are Presented to Queen Margaret--American Artists in Rome--The Royal Balls--Receptions and Parties--Meet Many People of Note--The Hills of Rome--Minister Astor and His Home--Hugh Conway--Ibsen--Marion Crawford--One of the Bonapartes--Keats’ Room--The Cardinals--Ischia Destroyed--Christmas in Rome--Letter from General Sherman--His Views of Rome--Cleveland’s Election--Franz Liszt Again. | [244] |
| [CHAPTER XXVII.] | |
| 1885. | |
| Still in Rome--Presented to Pope Leo XIII--Story, the Poet Sculptor--Randolph Rogers--Tilton--Elihu Vedder--Astor Resigns--Secretary of Legation Dies with Roman Fever--I Am Put in Charge of Legation--Capri--Governor Pierpont--Things Supernatural--Talk against Gladstone--Shakespeare Wood--Senator Moleschott, a Remarkable Man--Interesting Letters from General Sherman--Party Stronger than Patriotism; My Recall--Money Lending and Taxes--Keep Out of Debt. | [261] |
| [CHAPTER XXVIII.] | |
| 1886. | |
| The North American Review Engages Me to Edit Several Chapters of the Sherman Correspondence--Sherman Writes as to Magazines and His Book--The General Invites Me to Come and Stay at His Home in St. Louis--He Offers Me the Use of All His Papers--I Publish Also in the Review a Prose Narrative of the March to the Sea--Mrs. Sherman Reads It to the General--Buffalo Bill--General Gives Me His Army Badge--Nights in Sherman’s Office--Conversations with Him--Life in the Sherman Home--The General’s Complete Reconciliation with His Son Tom--Interesting Letters from Sherman as to Magazines--His Forthcoming Book--Farms and Taxes--War Histories--Grant’s Book--Newspapers--Christmas Letter. | [274] |
| [CHAPTER XXIX.] | |
| 1887–1890. | |
| An Interesting Letter from General Grant--Sherman Living in New York--His Immense Popularity with All Americans--Letters from Him--Exhibited Like a Circus--No Union Man Left in Foreign Service by Cleveland--He Writes for the Magazines--Magazines Again--Approves My Article in the North American Review on the March to the Sea--Humblest Union Man Better Patriot than the Proudest South Carolina Rebel--Sheridan Dying--Congress Should Make Rank of Lieutenant General Permanent--His Reception at Columbus--Death of Mrs. Sherman--About His Memoirs--No Profit--The Army of the Tennessee at Cincinnati--My Poem There--An Odd Interview at the White House--Conversations with Secretary Blaine--Death of the Great General--Speeches About Him in the Senate--I Am Again Appointed to Switzerland. | [287] |
| [CHAPTER XXX.] | |
| 1891. | |
| Go to Switzerland as Consul General--An Ocean Voyage Then and Now--A Glimpse of Burns’ Home--The Highest City in Europe--A Novel Republic--Life in the Higher Alps--Headquarters for Embroidery--Princess Salm-Salm--An Open Air Parliament--The Upper Rhine--At Hamburg--A Summer on the Baltic--Interview with Prince Bismarck. | [304] |